My 10wk old son is in hospital - GP misdiagnosed us

[Laine]

Warning - this is long but I need to get it out.

:gloomy: DS had been refusing his bottle from about Sunday, by Monday he had a temperature that came and went and I gave him some panadol, to go with that he had a bit of diarrhea, I thought he had just picked up a bug because my sister had been sick about a week before with gastro. Tuesday comes so I call out a doctor to come see us because the temp is still there and he isnt eating properly and is very irritable.

This is where it gets interesting and scary..:no: The gp checks the obvious spots, I tell him the symptoms and I tell him my sister had a bug about a week ago. He tells me yep ok its gastro.. so I say are you sure its gastro if he isnt vomiting (which he wasnt) and he says yes u can. Fine. I accepted that and he said to keep up the clear fluids- which I had been doing anyway. I asked if I could still give him formula and his response was - Only if you want him to have diarrhea. So I take it as give him boiled water only. He did not say anything else, just wrote he had gastro on his piece of paper and told me id have to put up with a grizzly boy for a few days. He was in a hurry and the lady who was taking my details was told by him to and I quote "Hurry up, lets go"

Wednesday comes and he still has a temp, so I ring Parent helpline and ask if there is anything else I can do as my 10wk old son has gastro. They tell me on this diagnosis to give him boiled water with some white sugar to keep his glucose levels up if he refuses to eat.
Going on all this advice I just hoped like the GP had said that it would go away its just a bug.

Thursday comes and he has still got it, its not bad, not many tell tale signs something is wrong but the temp still keeps coming and going. I keep up the panadol as told. By this stage I was getting quite worried so I called out an ambulance when his temp went up to 38.9. They said to take him to hospital if I am really worried, and he wont get in any sooner if they were to take him in (I didnt want to take him to emergency unless I knew it was getting serious, due to having to wait with lots of other sick people and the risk of him picking something else up) I called in another GP to come look at him, they told me at bout 6pm that night if his temp comes back to go to hospital, fine I was prepared to do that. It had gone on long enough and was obviously not gastro like the first gp told me.

Sure enough it came back so we dashed down to emergency. After waiting 4 hours in emergency we saw someone who took a urine test, I was finding it difficult to understand him as he spoke fast and understood little english. The first thing he tells me (and in the same sentence sure enough to freak a mother out) is This is Bad, very bad-White cells-contamination.

To me White cells meant cancer, I dont know why but whenever I hear of them its to do with that so immediately my heart froze. Again this doc couldnt seem to understand us and I couldnt understand him - but finally he told me no its not cancer and he thought it was funny I thought that :rolleyes:
So DS had to go for some pretty tough tests which I couldnt handle to watch so my mum took him, he needed a catheter, a lumbar puncture and an IV drip put in (I was later told it took the doc 3 times to get it in)

I was pretty upset and told that nope hes not going home tonight as he has a suspected UTI. He was immediately put on antibiotics to cover any infections he might have.

Results came back today and it is a UTI and an e-coli bug he got due to the UTI. Luckily he didnt have septicemia or meningitis.
Now I have been in hospital since thursday night I just came home tonight for some sleep whilst my mum watches him. He will be in hospital till Tuesday more then likely and needs an ultrasound on his kidneys to check no damage there. He appears to be on the mend though and is feeding a lot better.

I am however beating myself up about not getting into hospital sooner. My GP should have told me other outcomes it could of been, not brushed it off. He should of said if it keeps up after another day or so get him to emergency. Yes I know common sense comes into it, but to me I thought it was already properly diagnosed and he told me it would go away I didnt know any different. Is this a GP's negligience? Do I have a right to complain? Or is it my fault? I know GPs cant tell u everything as they have limited means but surely he could of spoken to me about possible causes etc, not just brushed my son off as having a bug that everyone else seems to have at the moment so he prob has it too.

I dont know, I just know I had a very sick boy in hospital who is now thankfully on the mend, I have been scared out of my mind and dont think I will ever trust a gp again :thumbsdown: :(

I want my son home now with me in our home, it shouldnt have got to this stage. He shouldnt have had to go through what he did, he is only 10wks old..


Anyway I needed to get that out.. Thanks for reading if u got this far. Ive had no sleep so it may of come out all gibberish...

ETA - What I feel worst about is that I was giving my baby clear fluids therefore making him pee alot and cause him more pain but I had no idea.

[bAaM]

:eek: OMG my bub has the same symptoms and has done since Wednesday(but only had a temp twice) and she was in hospital at 8 weeks with a UTI. I think we will be taking a trip to the hospital tomorrow just in case.

:hugs: :hugs: hugs for you and your little one its so hard when your kids are sick. I hope he is home soon.

[mikaylasmummy]

Firstly sending many :hugs: your way..
OMG I cannot believe that GP that came and saw him, could he of gotten any ruder!!!
You are not to blame for this you done exactly what you were told, how were you meant to know any differant?? you werent.. Please do not beat youself up about it, you got him to the hospital and that is the main thing.

I really hope he gets better for you ASAP and is great he is on the way to recovery! Good luck with the additional test's, I am sure all will turn out ok!!!

Again :hugs: :hugs: :hugs: :hugs: :hugs:

[Laine]

Thanks guys :hugs:

If nothing else I just want to warn all the mothers out there to make sure if your bub has a temp for more then a day and has those sort of symptoms get them to emergency straight away.

I would of thought with those signs he had a GP would of said it could be a UTI - they are the EXACT symptoms that comes with one, I wish I had done my research on the net sooner.

[icugal]

Hey Matey.. hope you are feeling a bit better.

Can I just put your mind at ease and tell you that an increase in white cells in a persons urine is usually a sign of infection... hence the UTI. Unfortunately though, a UTI can still make a person very sick.. especially a new little bub (as I'm sure you've more than discovered in the last couple of days)

Anyways, I just wanted to send happy healing vibes to your little boy and I hope that the antibiotics kick in soon.

Try and get some sleep so that you can spend your day with your beautiful boy little tomorrow :hugs:

Let us know how he goes :)

[sydney123]

Hi Laine, I totally understand how you feel. My DS was 4.5 months when he had UTI but was not diagnosed for 3 weeks! He was not feeding well (formula) and he was throwing up a little (not much). We thought his reflux was back eventhough he was on AR formula and we took him to the GP. The GP said it he must have caught a bug and it's probably gastro. The following week I noticed his urine had a very strong chemical smell. I thought it was the chemical from the nappy. I did mentioned it to my mum and DH but we all thought it was just coming from the nappy. What we did not know was that strong urine smell is a sign of UTI. Finally after 3 weeks of DS being very unsettled, not feeding well, one early morning he woke up whimpering. We checked on him and found that he was shivering and he had a temperature of 39 degrees! Took him back to the GP, had a urine test and was confirmed it was UTI. GP gave antibiotic and said to continue panadol. By evening he still had high grade fever so took him to emergency and was admitted. He had to have antibiotics through a drip for 2.5 days . They also had to put a cetheter in to get a urine sample because according to the hospital that was the only way to get a clean urine sample.

He had to have 3 tests after his UTI to make sure his kidneys are OK and he deos not have urine reflux. (ultrsound, DMSA and MCU) He had his last test a week ago (DS is now 6 months) and everything came back clear.

Now, I'm just paranoid. I'm always smelling his nappy to make sure it's not smelly.

[ryma]

Hi Laine. First of all :hugs: to you, I think you would need lots of hugs at the moment!
I know exactly how you feel, my DS1 was taken to our local GP when he was 3 weeks old with a temp of 40.3! As we lived in a country town then I was told to take him straight to the nearest major hospital an hour away. The Dr told me that they would perform some horrible tests but he was a very sick little boy who needed urgent medical attention (the only ambulance in town was busy) I was beside myself.
When we got there they examined him straight off and said that they expected it to be a urine infection so i said "phew!" thinking that was all and that wasn't anything major! The Dr then said that in little boys it is serious as they have to find an underlining cause. Then the tests began, they drew urine from his bladder, endless blood tests and they attempted to do a lumber puncture but couldn't draw out any fluid!(the lumber puncture was only performed to rule out Meningitis) Once they confirmed he had a UTI, he was admitted and placed on antibiotics intraveniously. He had an ultrasound the next day that confirmed he had Hydronephrosis, which they explained could be caused by reflux of his urine up to his kidney or a blockage in the Ureta which connects the kidney to the bladder.
Over the next year he had a heck of a lot of tests and constant monitering by ultrasounds as both his kidneys had dialation. He went on a preventative antibiotic to try and stop getting infections but managed to have a few more that year anyway. They have never found the cause of his dialation to his kidneys and over time it has improved! He gets the occasional UTI but he is old enough to tell me his "doodah" hurts and we are ususally on top of things before it gets to bad. Strangely enough with my DS2 it was picked up in the womb that he had hydronephrosis but not as bad as DS1. The Dr's always ask me who has kidney problems in our family as they think it must have a genetic link somewhere, but no one else has any problems.
Sorry about the ramble but stay strong and you will be amazed how common this problem is and with the marvels of modern medicine they can do wonders.

[BoyCrazy]

Firstly i have to say :hugs: to you and your family, especially your little one!

What I find to be really scary is how often these misdiaggnosis (sp?) are happening!

I know exactly how you are feeling, my Ds just a month ago when he was 22 months had a really bad chesty cough, so i took him to the local doctor who told me it was just a cold and not to worry! I took him back the next day as it was worsening and the same doc told me just to give him panadol :hair: . The next day It got really bad and he was vommitting and really lifeless, not wanting to do anything but sleep and didnt even want boobie drinks@!!:eek:
anyway, i rang my old doctor who is a 1 hour drive away and she said bring him straight in, she took one look at him and told me he had to be in hospital!! My poor bub had a temp of 40.2, a ear infection, throat infection, and had a chest infection which had spread to a pneumonia on his left lung :eek: He was admitted straight away and really badly dehydrated, so had to have an iv with fluids and antibiotics@

You can just imagine how ****ed off i was/am with that doctor!!!
:shame:
I believe that we should do something about this...certainely something needs to be done anyways, as its not just a one off thing!!

[Tabby]

Its so damn hard now to find a good GP!
You did well, you trusted your instincts and acted on it, many times If I hadnt trusted mine as well due to cr@p gp care... I shudder to think.

Glad it all worked out and bubs is now in good hands.
Hope hes home real soon and back in your arms before you know it.:hugs:

[punkbaby]

Sending you some good luck for bubs and yourself there i hope that all is ok and he makes a full recovery, how scary!

[Mumma2Jack]

:hugs: How heart breaking for you.

No way its your fault.If anything,you have done a great job at keeping it together(i doubt its been easy)...:hugs:

I hope your little man is home and well soon..
Stay strong,you are doing a wonderful job.Your little man will be very proud of his mummy..:hugs:

[Kizmet]

:hugs: :hugs: :hugs: :hugs: :hugs: :hugs:

[MummyCharmzy]

oh I cant imagine how scary that would be with such a young bub! My son had a bad UTI at 14 months that had him in and out of hospital for a month, it was horrible!

[Coopers mummy]

I think you should complain about both gp's!!!

I ahve been through s similar thing with my little boy. We saw a paedeatrician after being released from hospital as a follow up after the birth. At this stage we were told our son had reflux and to start exclusive bottle feeding and adding thickner ( i was still breast feeding a little but thats another story) and to let him have as much as he wanted to compensate for the vomiting.

Weeks later bub was still projectile vomiting and haveing severve tummy troubles. Another follow up with the paedeatrician and he said he was fine.

Saw our gp one week later who told us that he was definately not fine and to go back to the paedeatrician immediately. Went to see him and he basically admitted us straight to hospital, but not before charging us as a new consultation instead of a follow up because he had previously said he did not need to see us any longer. We were told that our son most likely has pyloric sterosis and that it would require surgery.

After four days in hospital, an ultrasound and barium swallow, plus a canula it was determined that he did not have this condition (thank goodness) but that he was OVERFED!!!!! After that same dr had told us to give hime as much as he wanted. Our son was having the same amount as other babies his age. Dr prescribed zantec but never gave us a dosage. Later called the hospital and spoke with his registrar who have us a mg amount to give him even though the bottle was a liquid and she should have told me a ml amount as I do not have the medical skills to work out the correct dosage.

Of course, finally worked it out after our poor little guy got way too much of this stuff. Thankfully it did not harm him, but very unprofessional of the dr to not write the dosage on the script and also negligible of the chemist to allow a script to be made up for a baby with no dosage. They should have contacted the hospital and asked!!!

Time went by and to me there was no improvement. We tried many different formulas on dr's advice. ar, ha, lf, you name it.

At this point I should probably mention that my husbands family have a strong history of lactose intolerance. At EVERY meeting with ANY doctor I mentioned this and asked if this could be the problem. I asked community nurses... anyone who seemed to have knowledge about babies and feeding.

Eventually things were so horrible that we went to stay at tresillian. There we saw another paedeatrician who told us that he believed it was the lactose allergy and also allergy to particular proteins and he wrote us a script forr neocate formula, which is a partially digested formula that is very sensitive. Also told not to use the zantac.

The formula changed our lives. I can not believe that it was something so simple and that the answer was there all along, just waiting for a health professional to listen to me long enough to conclude the obvious.

So from this what have a I learned???


1. Many doctors forget that we know when something is very wrong with our children and if we did not believe it to be a problem then we wouldnt be waiting hours to see them

2. Many of them think we are stupid

3. Many of them are stupid

4. Trust your gut instinct and keep asking till you are 110% sure that the problem is fixed.

5. If you are paying for the services of a paedeatrician, make sure you like them and are comfortable with their bedside manner.


Now I guess I have gone on long enough. I just wanted you to know that I tottally know where you are coming from, and maybe if we start pointing out to dr's when they misdiagnose they might think twice before being careless with the next child that walks through their surgery.

They would not be so careless with their own children!

[xpress2]

First of all - :hugs: :hugs:

I honestly think you have a right to complain.... If you don't get anywhere, atleast you know you tried...

It does pay to get a good GP.. I took DS (11 days at the time) to the GP because he had a rash... Now, she was sure it was viral but gave me a referal to go to Mater Children's Emergency as he is so young, she wanted a second opinion as you can never be too sure when bub is so young!

Hope your DS is feeling better soon, the poor little thing....

[Clareabell]

HUGE :hugs: to you and your little man...

When my DS was around 6 months old he came down with a fever and was really grizzly - I thought at first it may have been teeth but after a day he was still the same so I took him to the emergency department at our local hospital and the doctor checked his ears and said they were fine and then told me he had a viral infection and he would be fine in a day or two and "just give him panadol every 4hrs" anyway to cut a long story short DS was STILL the same 2 days later so off to my doctor's we went to find out there he had tonsilitis (no wonder he couldn't eat/drink properly too) so he required antibiotics - what annoyed me was - why couldn't the doctor check his little throat when he checked his ears at the hospital?? After a good dose of the antibiotics he was fine again...

I just felt that 5 days of feeling unwell could have been avoided if the doctor checked him all over at the hospital. SLACK I reckon!!!!:no:

[Laine]

:hugs: Thanks so much everyone for all your replies and your support :hugs: means a lot!
I do believe some thing does need to be said to the GP who first diagnosed him, it happens way too often and until this time I had complete faith in doctors because well, we are meant to. Thats what they get paid for. So I will have to find out what my options are, even if it is just a strongly worded letter I need to get it out there at the very least.

Seems that UTIs are quite common, thanks for all your stories ladies.. This is where I dont understand why the GP didn't suggest such a thing but oh well the important thing is it was picked up on eventually.
So a bit of an update, we are all home now. He will continue his antibiotics and go back in 6 weeks for another MCU (which I dont look forward to :no: ) he has a bit of dialation in his kidneys but its completely normal im told and as he gets older his kidneys will develop more and it should disappear :fingerscrossed:

Worse case scenario is he would need surgery if it doesnt but we are told that is rare. I made sure I asked all the right questions before we left lol..

So once again thanks for all your support, its so good to all be home again!!

[proud_mama]

Oh my....you poor thing :hugs:

I don't trust doctors at all. I hope your son has a speedy recovery.

[MoOaNdLiTtLePoPpEt]

It is in no way your fault...do not beat yourself up over it, bubs is ok and that's the main thing, i guess you could say it's a learning curve.

The only advice i have is that trsut your gut instinct, even if you have had a doctors, or your gps opinion....if you think that there is something more then don't have any doubts, take him to emergency...

here in qld if you get taken in by an ambo you get in straight away, i'm not sure how it is in adelaide (i see that's where you are from)...but that is ridiculos!!! we had taken my little boy in and called the ambulance, he had breathing difficulties and he was taken strait to the emergency department not the waiting room. I would double check that so you know for next time, as waitring for 4-5 hrs isn't fun!

you have done nothing wrong, you were going by what your gp told you....i must say my darling 10 month old had the same thing, and it was put down to gastro...it lasted 5 days of diahorrea and he had some vomiting, not nice at all...and i can imagine how hard it would have been to see your DS go through all of that....:hugs: :hugs: to you.....

Just never doubt your gut feeling (from what you wrote you had a gut feeling something just wasn't right - trust it!)
xxx

[HunterzMummy]

Typical of our top grade medical system :thumbsdown:

sending heaps of :hugs::hugs::hugs: your way hun

[mum2bubba]

Poor little boy. I hope hes ok soon. My nephew had a UTI when he was a baby and and was in hospital for about a week, it was lucky that my SIL found some blood on his nappy because if she didn't she wouldn't have known (he wasn't sick or anything) so wouldn't have thought to take him to the hospital.

:hugs: for you and your bubba.

[BoyCrazy]

hey laine!

hows your little man doing?? hope you are both doing much better now hes home and on the mend..

if there is anything u need please pm me!

:wave: Mel

[Laine]

hey laine!

hows your little man doing?? hope you are both doing much better now hes home and on the mend..

if there is anything u need please pm me!

:wave: Mel

Thanks Mel, he is doing a LOT a better, so much better for being home in his own environment although we have now discovered he has picked up a bit of a personality since being in hosp. Quite the demanding bubba at the moment his cries have totally changed (I know that sounds weird) but if he wants something then u definetly know about it!

Feels like he has aged so much since being in hospital lol

jack_0306 - Yeah paramedics told me that even if they were to take him in he wouldnt get in straight away and we would be waiting because he was still responsive, so it would have to be a real emergency to get in and from what they could see, he was fine.

Really frustrating, the whole system is but being in hospital with him made me see how lucky we were it wasn't anything more serious. Some mums were in there with their bubs and kids for things so much more serious and its not the great place to spend your days! Very depressing environment.

mum2bubba - Thanks for the hugs :hugs: , Yeah this sort of infection can be very hard to detect, babies react in different ways to things, hope your nephew healed up quickly! its so hard watching bubs go through all the tests they make them have.

[SweetSerenity]

Aww you poor thing...:hugs:

I can understand how you must be feeling... My son was only 2 - 3 weeks old and he started developing these yellowish welts/blisters around his genital area.

My usual doctor was on holidays as it was christmas break so I had to take him to a Medical Centre.

The lady who saw him took a swab to be sent off, looked at it and said it was a bad case of nappy rash and he needed cortizone cream.

So we went and got that. A few days later still no better and was getting worse. Thank god my doctor was back, took peter straight there and all it took was for him to have one glimpse and he said "Golden Staf" :eek: :eek:

The woman at the medical centre even took a swab, sent it for testing and you think it would of come up on that but we never heard a word from her.

I was so mad that she didn't diagnose GOLDEN STAF on a 3 week old baby!!!!!:mad:

I totally understand your frustration with the doctor diagnosing gastro... what a tool though, gastro IS vomiting or diaorrhea (sp?) or both combined!!!!

Im glad to hear your son is doing better and is at home now :)

Some doctors need to be more vigilant, especially with little babies!!!!:thumbsdown:

[our little treasures]

I am so sorry Laine! I hope he makes a quick recovery!!

[MoOaNdLiTtLePoPpEt]

Hi Laine...

that sux....here in qld it must be different. if they are taken in via ambulance they go strait in...

i was sitting in the waiting room with DS when he had 'what we thut was gastro'....5 hr wait..he was lethargic, just laying in the pram or in my arms....yet we still had to wait....

other kids were running around the waiting area....

makes you sooooo mad!!!!

Hope your little man is feeling better....and babe, don't ever doubt a mothers instinct....;)

[Canuck]

Wow! I'm so glad that he's doing well now. I'm glad you kept up with it.

Was the GP your normal GP? Have you passed on this info to him and explain how serious it ended up being? Hopefully he'll learn his lesson and not be such a moron the next time. It's almost like as mothers we need a medical degree just to tell the docs what our children have. No where near as serious but I had to tell my docs that my child had reflux and why I felt that way before they'd treat him.

Take care and best wishes.

[supa_star323]

My son went through a similar thing when he was 5 days old, but refused everything. The midwives told me not to bother bringing him to the hospital, and then I did anyway and they rushed him to the mater ICU because he was that sick....
Luckily he was oky, but now has delayed development and seizures (the paed doesn't think it's related)...
Anyway, good on you for trusting your instincts, and this goes to show that doctors aren't always right...
Hope your son is better soon...